About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 The North and the South 1 (1850)

handle is hein.slavery/norths0001 and id is 1 raw text is: THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. The progress and prospects of the Northern and Southern sections of this Union involves some of the greatest and gravest questions of the age. Each has a form of civilization peculiar to itself, and to modern times. The confed- eracy which has been formed by their union has astonished the world by its success; but the world, as well as the two sections themselves, differ very widely as to the causes of this success, and the agency of the two respective systems of society in producing it. This controversy has long been advancing on the country, and now, in consequence of recent events, it has become general. In this part of the country, however, wethave had but one side; and as the subject is one of the first magnitude, I have thought it highly important that it should be well examined. 'In a Commercial Institution like this, it is peculiarly proper that the causes of the wealth and the sources of the commerce of the country should be well understood. When the Constitution of the United States was adopted, the population of the two sections of the United States was nearly equal-each being not quite two millions of inhabitants, the South including more than half a million of slaves. The territory then occupied by the two was, perhaps, also nearly equal in extent and fertility. Their commerce was also about the same; the North exporting about $9,800,540 in 1790, and the South $9,200,500.-* Even the property held by the two sections was almost exactly the same in amount, being about 400,006 millions in value each, according to an assessment for direct taxes in 1799.* For the first quarter of a century of the present Govern- ment, up to 1816, the South took the lead of the North in commerce: as at the end of that period the exports of the Southern States amounted to about thirty millions of dollars, which was five millions more than the Northern. At this time, in 1816, South Carolina and New York Were the two greatest ex- porting States of the Union, South Carolina exporting more than $10,000,000, and New York over $14,000,000.* According to the assessments made by authority of the Federal Government in 1815 for direct taxes, the value of property in the Southern States had risen to $859,574,697, the white population being then, according to an average of the census of 1810 and that of 1820, about 2,749,795, or about $312 per head, whilst the property of the Northern States amounted to $1,042,782,264,* for 4,326,550 population, or only $240 per head. Even in Manufactures, the South, at this period, excelled the North in pro- portion to the numbers of their population. In 1810, according to the returns of the Marshals of the United States, the fabrics of wool, cotton, and -linen, manufactured in the Northern States, amounted to 40,344,274 yards, valued at $21,061,525, whilst the South fabricated 34,786,497 yards, estimated at $16,771,724. Thus, after the lapse of the first quarter of a century, under our present form of Government, the South had surpassed the North in Commerce, in Manufactures, and in the accumulation of wealth, in proportion to the num- ber of citizens of the respective sections. * Pitkin.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most